AIVAZOVSKY’S PAINTING CONSIDERED WORTHLESS BY ITS OWNER SOLD FOR $1.2M IN SWEDEN

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 16, 2011 – 12:46 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Ivan Aivazovsky’s painting considered worthless
by its owner and nearly donated to charity fetched a staggering 7.6
million kronor ($1.2 million) at an auction in Uppsala in eastern
Sweden, The Local reported.

“When we told him what it was worth, the air in the room turned
electric,” auctioneer Knut Knutson of Uppsala Auction House (Uppsala
Auktionskammare) said.

The owner, “an ordinary Swede”, had been oblivious to what he had
hanging on his wall for almost a decade. The painting, which had been
left to him by his wife when she passed away, turned out to be a work
of Russian master Ivan Aivazovsky dating back to 1858. Its name was
“The Battle of Bomarsund”.

The improbable story began when the elderly man who was moving house
decided he had some stuff to get rid of. He got in contact with a
small Stockholm auction house and sent a few boxes over to them,
including a large canvas his wife had left him when she passed away
in 2002, which would be too large for the walls of his new home.

On a note he had written: “Will you accept these things? Sell what
you can and leave the rest to the Red Cross!”

The painting was put out for auction on the net with a starting price
of 8,000-10,000 kronor. However, when the activity around the painting
exceeded expectations, the head of the auction house decided it might
be best to seek expert advice.

They then turned to Uppsala Auction House, known for selling a lot
of Russian objects in recent years.

“When we got the email we almost exploded with excitement. We realized,
of course, that if this was a genuine Aivazovsky it would be a painting
worth millions”, Knutson said.

According to Knutson, the owner, who started out as a lumberjack
and got an education through correspondence courses, still finds it
hard to believe what has happened. “He is very happy and completely
overwhelmed, but he won’t quite believe it until he can see the money
in his account,” Knutson said.